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COEflRIGHT DEPOSITS 



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THE MINISTRY OF NATURE, 
MUSIC, AND TEARS 



The Ministry of Nature, 
Music, and Tears 



By 
Ray Clarkson Harker, D. D. 

Author of "Christian Science," "The Work of 
the Sunday School" Etc. 



,§, 



Cincinnati : Jennings and Graham 
New York: Eaton and Mains 



*<* 



Copyright, 1912, by 
Jennings and Graham. 



gd.A320343 



CONTENTS 




I 

The Ministry of Nature, 


Page 
- 11 


II 




The Ministry of Music, 


39 



III 

The Ministry of Struggle and Tears, - 55 



PREFACE 

Nature, Music, and Tears speak in a lan- 
guage known by many folks. No one can be 
wholly indifferent to their triple appeal. 

In the three chapters that compose this 
book the author has sought to express the 
thoughts that have lived and throbbed in his 
mind and heart. 

The chapter on Nature is not so much a 
study of " nature for its own sake," as an at- 
tempt to see nature as the avenue by which our 
Father reveals His thoughts to man. As J. C. 
Van Dyke declares: " Mountains do not ' frown/ 
trees do not 'weep/ nor do skies 'smile;' they 
are quite incapable of doing so; M yet they all in 
their various aspects may symbolize messages 
for the human heart. 

The chapter on The Ministry of Music is 
simply the placing of an emphasis upon the 
fact of the close connection of music with what 
is highest and best in the heritage of the race. 

Called upon frequently to minister unto 

7 



Preface 

those in trouble and sorrow, I have often longed 
for the vision of a seer and the tongue of an 
angel that I might quiet the whirling brain, 
solace the aching heart, and still the wild sea of 
human sorrow. The third chapter is what I 
have sought in various ways to bring as a balm 
for all who wait the fuller vision and the open 
Revelation. 

If those who read this wee book shall have 
eyes, ears, and hearts more open to the Minis- 
try of Nature, Music, and Tears, the author 

will be graciously rewarded. 

R. C. H. 
Phoenix, Arizona. 



8 



THE MINISTRY OF NATURE 



THE MINISTRY OF NATURE 

Nature is one of God's open books. Happy is 
the man whose heart is open to her message. 

"To him who, in the love of Nature, holds 
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks 
A various language." 

Tennyson sang of the " flower in the crannied 
wall," Wordsworth of the rainbow and of the 
rose, Burns of the daisy and of the mouse, 
Homer of the aspen poplar and of the flowing 
fountain, Byron of the ocean, David of the 
mountains, rivers, clouds, and stars; and Mrs. 
Browning of earth as " crammed with heaven, 
and every common bush afire with God." 

How frequently man has a sealed eye, a 
curtained vision! We are often blind to the 
sweet thoughts that lie about us and which 
ought to find a home in our hearts. 

The Ancients confined God to His Creation; 
we are apt to shut Him out of His Creation. 
Is there not a golden mean set forth by the 
words, "God is immanent, but is not limited 

II 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

by nature; He is transcendent, but is not sep- 
arated from all or any natural process/ ' 

We should see God in His works. The flower 
is a thought of God put into petal and odor. 
The blade of grass is His thought, quivering 
into form. The fluttering leaf is His thought, 
trembling into vision. " Things are also thoughts 
and have reference to the Thought that put them 
there and to the thought that finds them there." 
It is said of nature, "Reason oozes out of every 
pore." A Persian poet says, "The world is a 
bud from the bower of His beauty; the sun is 
a spark from the light of His wisdom; the sky 
is a bubble on the sea of His power." The film 
needs to be cut from our eyes so that we can 
sing with Horace Smith: 

' 'Were I, O God, in churchless lands remaining, 
Far from all voice of teachers or divines, 
My soul would find in flowers of Thy ordaining 
Priests, sermons, shrines." 

Emerson writes: 

"Every bird that sings, 

And every flower that stars the elastic sod, 
And every breath the radiant summer brings, 
To the pure spirit, is a word of God." 
12 



The Ministry of Nature 

Henry Van Dyke heard an Englishman say, 
as he gazed upon the crystal ice masses of the 
Mer de Glace, "All that ice would bring a lot 
of money in the hot season at Calcutta — don't 
you know?" But Coleridge, looking upon a 
similar scene, sang of the "icy cliffs" of the 
"crystal shrine," of the "motionless torrents," 
of the "silent cataracts" until he was "en- 
tranced in prayer and worshiped the Invisible 
alone." 

The myriad objects about us are called "the 
lyric thoughts of God falling from His Almighty 
solitude/' and all Creation "an Infinite Will 
rushing into sight." 

Nature reveals thought and design. The 
separate moments combined would make hours 
in which I have sought to find an ear of corn 
with an uneven number of rows of grains. The 
even numbers vary, but you can never find an 
ear with an odd number of rows. 

One day, as a man was reading Plato, he 
came to the words, "God always geometrizes." 
Lifting his eyes from his book, he saw a flower 
at his feet. His attention was arrested by it. 
He took the flower in his hand. He counted 

13 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

the petals — they numbered five. He counted 
the stamens — there were five. He counted the 
divisions at the base of the flower — there were 
five. This excited his curiosity. He then 
looked at the other flowers of the same kind, 
and then cast his eye on the fields filled with 
them, and exclaimed, " Bloom on, little flowers; 
you have a God, and I have a God; the God 
that made these flowers made me." 

Agassiz has pointed out that the arrangement 
of leaves on the stem of a plant is similar to 
the arrangement of the planets with regard to 
the sun. It is a law of botany that the turns 
made on the stem and the leaves passed in 
reaching another directly above the one you 
started from form an ascending series — 1, 2, 3, 
5, 8, 13, 21, etc. So it is said, "The planets from 
Neptune to Vulcan revolve around the sun, 
and complete their orbit in periods which ex- 
hibit precisely the same succession of numbers, 
a series of threes.' ' This is evidence that He 
who made the flower made the stars. The plant 
seems like "a miniature solar system." "The 
leaves of the one answer to the planets of the 
other; and as the leaves of a plant come closer 

H 



The Ministry of Nature 

and closer together, until, at last, they cul- 
minate in the radiance of the flower, so ^t he 
planets of the solar system come closer and 
closer together until, at last, they blossom, as 
it were, in the splendor of the sun." 

Nature is marvelous in its revelations of 
Beauty. How beautiful the gushing spring, the 
flowing fountain, the crystalline pool, the dew- 
drop on the clover-leaf, the babbling brook, the 
glinting river, the roaring torrent, the irised 
waterfall, and the jeweled waves on the shore 
of a summer sea! 

There is beauty in the flowing stream. The 
little rill begins its journey. Other streamlets 
unite with it, a brook is formed. It plashes 
and dances archly in its glee. It goes singing 
on its way. It trips on silver sandals. We re- 
member Tennyson's exquisite lines: 

"I come from haunts of coot and hern, 
I make a sudden sally 
And sparkle out among the fern, 
To bicker down a valley. 

"I chatter over stony ways, 
In little sharps and trebles; 
I bubble into eddying bays; 
I babble on the pebbles. 

15 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

"I chatter, chatter as I flow 
To join the brimming river, 
For men may come and men may go, 
But I go on forever." 

The brimming river into which the brook 
issues rolls its majestic tide ever toward the 
sea. On and on it sweeps, past meadow lands 
and harvest fields, past hamlets and cities. On 
it moves in storm and calm, in sunlight and 
starlight, in summer and winter; now gurling 
under ice, and now singing past flowers; but on, 
ever on to its rest in the sea, ever moving, like 
time, into eternity. 

Winter also brings its revelation of beauty. 
The mantle of gleaming snow, the abundant 
clusters of ice crystals, the artistic work of the 
King of frosts give a glory to winter. The little 
brook bordered with a glazed and sparkling 
frost-work is not inferior in beauty to the 
brooklet when fringed with the most gorgeous 
flowers. Even skeleton weeds, when ice-in- 
cased and in the firm grip of crystal fetters, 
are radiant and resplendent. 

Some years ago the writer witnessed a scene 
in Southwestern Wisconsin that still hangs as a 

16 



The Ministry of Nature 

picture of rare beauty in the chamber of memory. 
It had sleeted almost all night, but toward morn- 
ing some snow had fallen. When day was 
come I went out into the woods. Every branch 
and twig was cased in pure crystal. Some of 
the willows, and even sapling oaks, were bent 
into half-circles, having their tops frozen to 
the ground. Objects that in summer might 
have detracted from the beauty of the scene 
were now beautifully bedecked with crystal 
gems. When the sun arose and sent his piercing 
rays abroad, some of the most gorgeous arches, 
most splendid canopies, and grandest cathedrals 
were to be seen. The dazzling sunbeams piercing 
the ice-incased twigs, which were thickly clus- 
tered together, were transformed into the pris- 
matic colors, and presented a most gorgeous 
scene. When it had become a little warmer I 
went out into the woods again, and I found 
that the twigs were being released from the 
firm grip of their icy fetters. The ice was 
falling in showers. There was music in the air, 
and one seemed to feel that nature was speaking 
to his soul. 

The flowers furnish a wealth of beauty. Our 
2 I7 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

paths are strewn with them. They blossom for 
us by every wayside. The buttercup lifts its 
golden head into the light to catch the kiss of 
the sun. The rose opens its bloom and, behold 
an apocalypse of beauty! The pansy wakes to 
life and seems to all but speak. The violet is 
"a tatter of blue, torn from God's sky." With 
sunbeam pencils God paints the bluebell and 
the lily. A man with an eye open to nature's 
charm says, "The breeze blows on the flowers 
and rings the petal bells until they toll out their 
fragrance." Wordsworth sings: 

"To me the meanest flower that blows can give 
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears." 

The birds are beautiful as they carol their 
matins about the golden windows of the morn. 
Agassiz found birds so attractive in his travels 
in the tropics that he called them " birds of 
Paradise." Beecher declares that his soul found 
its way to God, lifted by the song of a bird. 
When the songster pours forth his liquid notes, 
and makes the air quiver with melody, he does 
not know that he is thrilling your soul, but 
God knows. These living, " breathing gems," 

18 



The Ministry of Nature 

with hearts on fire, are messengers telling of 
our Father's care, and their melody should set 
the human soul to singing. He who loves 
beauty in the yellow of the canary, in the 
scarlet of the tannager, in the mottle of the 
lark, in the topaz of the humming bird, and in 
the iris of the dove will not forget His earthly 
child. 

The clouds assume various forms of beauty. 
These navigators of the air have greatly in- 
fluenced the race. Ruskin declares that the 
chief masters of the human imagination have 
confessed that they owe the force of their no- 
blest thoughts not to the flowers of the valley, 
nor the majesty of the hill, but to the flying 
cloud. What variety of beauty in these float- 
ing messengers! 

The cirrus, feathery, film-like, and silky, 
float in their far-off home fifty thousand feet 
above the earth. These ice needles, for such 
they are supposed to be, are yellow, pink, 
and scarlet, and float like filmy flakes of 
fire. 

The cumulus go hurrying across the heavens 
on a summer day, and you see the flying shadow 

19 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

on the earth. At times they appear like tur- 
rets, and towers, and castles, and domes, and 
bursting billows. They are amber, opal, and 
white, and at evening are often lined with 
silver or embroidered with gold. 

The stratus are likened unto " leagued levia- 
thans of the sea of heaven," and stretch from 
horizon to horizon, sometimes in bars of 
red or yellow, and sometimes with a leaden 
hue. 

The nimbus brings the rain. They roll their 
ragged edges, their gray or purple front in the 
van of the storm. Tennyson gives us this 
vivid picture: 

11 Comes a vapor from the margin, blackening over heath 
and holt, 
Cramming all the blast before it, in its breast a thunder- 
bolt." 

The clouds have fire in them, they encamp 
on hills, they rest on mountain slopes, or far 
away dream and sleep, or twist and swirl. They 
travel noiselessly, and scud like flocks, and 
show the rainbow on their bosoms. Ruskin 
says: "By the firmament of clouds the golden 

20 



The Ministry of Nature 

pavement is spread for the sun's chariot wheels 
at morning; by the firmament of clouds the 
temple is built for his presence to fill with 
light at noon; by the firmament of clouds the 
purple veil is closed at evening round the sanc- 
tuary of his rest." 

We all remember impressive moments when 
the ministry of nature in its revelations of 
beauty has enriched our lives. The writer 
remembers such an experience on Puget Sound. 
The sun was low in the west and was soon to 
say " good-night.' ' To the east was Mount 
Baker with its crest bathed in crystal splendor. 
Far to the southeast loomed up the snow- 
browed peaks of the Cascades. To the south, 
one hundred miles away, we could yet see the 
frost-bannered summit of Mount Rainier. To 
the southwest were the rugged, jutting cliffs 
and splintered crests of the Olympics sharp 
against the sky. At our feet were the briny 
waters of the Sound, through which our vessel 
was plunging toward the open sea of the Pacific. 
The ripples on the summits of the waves, shot 
through with shafts of light, were like living, 
moving flakes of fire, and the shattered foam 

21 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

from the wave-crests fell like showers of amethyst 
and pearl into the sea. The western firmament 
was a flood of golden glory, with bars of amber 
shooting across the mantling sky. The sun 
like a ball of fire sank into the ocean, and as 
we sailed out into the open sea " night let down 
her mantle and pinned it with a star." 

Here is another scene that fades not with the 
passing years, but lingers as a benediction. One 
sweet May day we left the weird city of Pompeii 
to climb up to the crater of Vesuvius. After rid- 
ing our ponies for a couple of hours we dis- 
mounted and scrambled on hands, feet, and 
knees up to the summit. Nearing the cone we saw 
the steam issuing from the crevices of the rocks. 
We could feel a slight tremor of the mountain. 
We could detect the sulphurous smoke. At 
last we stood upon the brink of the crater. The 
steam and smoke rolled up from its hot throat. 
Explosions at brief intervals sent stones into the 
air and made the mountain quake. The lava 
surging in the great caldron sounded like the 
swash of the sea. Retiring from the crater we 
stood upon a little pinnacle to look about us. 
The face of nature near by was seared with fire. 

22 



The Ministry of Nature 

Here was where more than eighteen hundred 
years ago the light had melted out of the sky, 
and where dark and massy clouds had hung; 
where fiend-like flames had leaped from the 
volcano's crater, where rumbling sounds had 
echoed in the clefts of the rock, where vegeta- 
tion had shriveled under the heated, foul,, and 
vaporous air, and where the agents of terror 
and death had been omnipresent. This was 
the Mount that had been roused like a giant 
from the sleep of years and had rocked, and 
quivered, and reeled. Here fiery cataracts and 
demon floods had leaped onward. Here ava- 
lanches of fire had steamed, and smoked, and 
writhed, and had gone hissing into the sea. 
Here all the horrors of ghastly night and of 
more ghastly death had rushed on the noon. 
As we stood there that crystal summer day 
the mountain seemed covered with rigid corpses 
and resembled a " petrified creation. " To the 
southeast we beheld the strange, weird ruins of 
Pompeii. A little beyond was Sorrento. More 
to the south was the charming little island of 
Capri with " sapphire gates." Full to the 
south was the peerless Bay of Naples flecked 

23 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

with many a sail. To the westward was the 
city of Naples nestling by the sea, while behind 
us was Italy, the land of art, poetry, and song. 
Here is where "summer sings and never dies," 
a vision upon which the angels might wish to 
look. 

The ministry of nature is seen in her revela- 
tions of power. Nature's processes of growth 
hint of power. The seed of a cedar is planted 
in the earth. It is instinct with life; it is packed 
with power. The winds whisper to it. Moisture 
softens its heart. It awakes. It thrills with 
life. Its vital energy bursts its enveloping shell. 
Its roots dive downward and seek for food. 
Its blade comes to the open day and breathes 
in power. It is tender and slender, but life is 
at its heart. It begins its battle. It is trampled 
upon. The winds cuff it. At the end of a 
decade it is a sappling. A century runs away 
and it is not mature. A thousand years roll 
by and it nears gianthood. There are Redwood 
trees in the Calaveras over six thousand years 
old. What empires they have seen rise and 
fall, what civilizations wax and wane! They 
tossed their kingly heads in the breeze before 

24 



The Ministry of Nature 

Paul fought with Euroclydon on the deep. 
They wrestled with the storm before Alexander 
led his legions to victory, or the Athenians won 
their immortal triumph at Marathon. These 
mighty giants made music in the wind before 
David tuned his harp or blind Homer sang. 
For fifty centuries the winds of God have played 
upon their crests as great ^Eolian harps. 

There is an exhibition of power in the stream 
that is first like a ribbon of silver in its moun- 
tain home. Later it becomes a hurrying tor- 
rent. By and by it leaps wildly from some 
mountain crag, and finally as a majestic river 
it rolls its multitudinous waters to their resting 
place in the sea. The tides speak of power as 
they throw their thundering billows on the 
beach. The thunderbolt gives its revelation of 
power when it leaps from the cloud and rives 
the oak, or hurls the temple to the dust. The 
sun speaks eloquently of power as he rises from 
his couch at morn, wakes the birds to singing, 
carpets the earth with grass and flowers, fills 
the fields with harvests, ushers in the seasons, 
and lifts three billion tons of water from the 
earth every minute, moves on in majesty across 

25 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

the sky, and at eventide hastens to rest his 
weary head on the pillow of the western sea. 
The volcano is a herald of power as it pours 
from the earth's hot heart its lurid tides. The 
avalanche reveals power when it slips from its 
moorings on the mountain, and plunges with 
the rush and roar of a thousand storms to its 
rest in the valley below. Gravitation speaks 
of power as it drags rivers forever to the sea, 
pulls down trees, summons Niagaras to their 
plunge, forms tears, spheres planets, mar- 
shals glowing galaxies, and controls solar sys- 
tems in their mighty swing through spacial 
abysses, all 

"Forever singing as they shine, 
The Hand that made us is divine." 

Nature ministers to us in revealing the 
Sublime. The ocean is sublime. It is the abode 
of mystery and of storms. The silence of its 
depths seems kindred to the silence of the 
skies. How gentle is the calm of a silent sum- 
mer sea! What power and majesty in the 
crystal cliffs and crashing billows of a tumul- 
tuous ocean! Its moods are many. It thunders, 

26 



The Ministry of Nature 

booms, sings an anthem, surges, sobs. Byron 

sang of its sublimity: 

"Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form 
Glasses itself in tempests; in all time, 

Calm or convulsed — in breeze or gale or storm, 
Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime 

Dark heaving; — boundless, endless, and sublime — 
The image of Eternity — the throne 

Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime 

The monsters of the deep are made; each zone 
Obeys thee: thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, 
alone." 

The sea often stirs the heart of man. The 
vision of the sea often helps him to give ex- 
pression to the thought that is burning at his 
heart. He likens his life to a voyage upon the 
sea: and he sings and prays: 

"Jesus, Savior, pilot me 
Over life's tempestuous sea; 
Unknown waves before me roll, 
Hiding rock and treacherous shoal ; 
Chart and compass came from Thee; 
Jesus, Savior, pilot me." 

The ocean is to man an emblem of the love 

of God, and he sings: 

"There's a wideness in God's mercy, 
Like the wideness of the sea." 

27 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

Man thinks of his departure to the Home 
of the Blest like embarking on the sea: 

11 Sunset and evening star, 
And one clear call for me! 
And may there be no moaning of the bar 
When I put out to sea." 

The sight of the sea often lifts the soul 
heavenward. It transports man into a high 
and holy realm of thought, and the heart 
climbs up to commune with God. 

"I dream of the sea, I dream of the sea. 
Its swishing waves make music for me, 
Its pulsing waters beat in my blood, 
My heart knows the movement of neap-tide and 

flood. 
Its mist-veiled horizons challenge me 
To belief in God and eternity: 
My spirit grows bold in the ambient air; 
O'er the heaving billows I lift up a prayer. 
Far from dust of the street and prattle of men, 
I read here the Scripture not written with pen: 
1 Deep calleth to deep ' in the mystery 
Of the sky and the soul and the sea." 

River canons furnish visions of sublimity. 
The Grand Canon of the Colorado River in 
Arizona is overwhelmingly sublime. You may 

28 



The Ministry of Nature 

as well attempt to paint the heavens as to 
describe the Grand Canon. With a few friends 
I went down this canon one day. We followed 
the zigzag path descending five thousand feet 
and stood on the brink fifteen hundred feet 
above the roaring flood. The Grand Canon is 
a labyrinth of canons. Standing there we 
swept the circle of vision and counted nine 
great facades that rose a mile high. They 
made a mammoth amphitheater. After a little 
computation we found that you could com- 
fortably seat over two hundred million people 
here. On one of these great walls you could 
seat the millions of England, on another the 
millions of France, on another the millions of 
Germany, on another the millions of Norway, 
Sweden, and Denmark, on another the millions 
of Turkey, Switzerland, Greece, Holland, and 
Belgium, and on the remaining the millions of 
Uncle Sam's children. So if these nations 
wanted to hold an International Congress, and 
have all present, we could furnish the amphi- 
theater. 

Those walls rise before you higher than 
thirty Bunker Hill Monuments, higher than 

29 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

twenty Ferris Wheels, higher than five Eiffel 
Towers, higher than fifty tall church spires. 
And yonder, fifteen hundred feet below where 
you stand, is the rushing, roaring river 
hurrying on fifteen miles per hour toward 
the sea. 

In these limestone, sandstone, and volcanic 
rocks and marble there is, by means of the play 
of light and shadow, a kaleidoscopic variety of 
beauty. The domes, castles, pinnacles, spires, 
towers, turrets, minarets, barricades, and battle- 
ments are painted in such variety of hue by the 
sunbeam pencils that this stupendous panorama 
impresses you as the scenic wonder of the 
world. Here is a fagade shining forth under 
the glow of the direct rays of the sun. The 
rocks are of yellow and roseate hue, of opal 
richness, and saffron glory. Over there is a 
stony front in the shadow and with softer colors. 
Yonder is one in deeper shade, and mists of 
amethyst seem rising out of the Tartarean 
depths. These majestic cliffs of stone, these 
tinted walls and glowing rocks, these purpling 
shadows, these mysterious caverns, these silent, 
somber solitudes all make this scene colossal, 

30 



The Ministry of Nature 

sublime, awful, overwhelming, and finite man 
seems so small and Infinite God so great. 

Mountains are sublime. A great mountain 
often has a somber hue. There are deep gulches 
and rents and glens into which the direct rays 
of the sun never shine. The " arrowy pines" 
on their slopes play their vesper hymns at the 
time of the " sunset breeze/ ' and these mingle 
with the litany of the cascades. Save these 
sounds the silent slopes seem full of slumber. 
Their craggy cliffs, hewn with celestial chisels, 
are rugged with mystery. On their summits 
mists dream and sleep, or float like incense up 
to God. They are the abodes of tempests, the 
homes of avalanches, the mothers of rivers and 
climates. Your eye sweeps up the shaggy slope 
to where only shrubs are clinging to their rough 
and rugged home. Upward you gaze to those 
shivering peaks, to those splintering spires, to 
those cloud-bannered summits, to those cliffs 
with snowy helmets. 

The mountain's base may have its moss 
and tree and heather and singing bird. The 
slope may have its somber shade, purple rocks, 
and leaping cataract, but the summit finds a 

31 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

home amid the battlements of eternal frost. 
Summer never smiles on that immaculate brow. 
The Winter King reigns there alone. The 
mountain is a symbol of power, an emblem of 
eternity, an altar for humanity, a shadow of 
Divinity. It is one of God's pictures hung out 
against the firmament. 

There is an impressive sublimity in the sky. 
The devout astronomer saw in the wheeling 
galaxies the thoughts of God. Agassiz at 
Penikese was solemnized to prayer by the vision 
of the silent sky and plain. The philosopher 
declared that one of the scenes of moving 
majesty was the starry heavens at night. One 
characterizes the sky as " sometimes gentle, 
sometimes capricious, sometimes awful, never 
the same for two moments together; almost 
human in its passions, almost spiritual in its 
tenderness, almost divine in its infinity/ ' 

How the sky speaks of immensity! Stars 
were once thought to be "tiny balls of light, " 
but now we see them as majestic worlds 
with their quenchless fires. Telescope and 
spectroscope have changed our conceptions of 
the celestial mechanics Far-away nebulae have 

32 



The Ministry of Nature 

broken into glittering clusters of worlds. We 
see the glowing furnaces; it is God who feeds 
their fires. We behold the sweeping chariots; 
it is God who holds the reins. 

Two thousand years ago Hipparchus called 
the number of stars one thousand and twenty- 
two. Ptolemy, of the second century of the 
Christian era, found one thousand and twenty- 
six. Could we view the entire heavens we 
could see but a few thousand stars with the 
naked eye. But the telescope came, and by 
means of this powerful instrument almost four 
hundred millions of stars may be seen. This 
instrument lifts the veil from countless worlds 
and makes the Milky Way burst into clusters 
of separate stars. 

Dr. Schauffler tells how the professor of 
astronomy in Columbia University while lec- 
turing on Stellar Photography threw on the 
screen four pictures of the same nebula with 
the surrounding stellar companions. The first 
picture was taken by an exposure of three min- 
utes. The nebula was faint and here and there 
a star appeared. The next picture was the result 
of a three hour exposure. The nebula was much 
3 33 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

clearer, and there were a few more stars. The 
third picture was the outcome of an eight hour 
exposure, on two consecutive nights. The 
nebula was more brilliant and the stars more 
abundant. The fourth picture was gotten by 
an exposure for six nights, in all twenty-five 
hours, and when the audience saw it they broke 
into applause. "The nebula was glorious and 
the stars hosts on hosts.' ' The professor added: 
"Gentlemen, you are now seeing what the 
naked eye, with the assistance of the most 
powerful telescope in the world, never will see; 
for the eye never can hold itself steadily to the 
image for twenty-five consecutive hours.' ' 

Man's imagination grows weary when he 
tries to swing across the abyss of space. Schiller 
says: 

"Thou sail'st in vain — Return. Before thy path Infinity! 
And thou in vain ! Behind me spreads Infinity to Thee ! 
Fold thy wings drooping, 
O Thought, eagle-swooping!— 
O Phantasie, anchor! — Thy voyage is o'er: 
Creation, wild sailor, flows on to no shore!" 

We look up into those vast silences. What a 
profound hush in those depths jeweled with 

34 



The Ministry of Nature 

star-gems! How impressive the " stillness of 
the eternal chambers !" 

"One sun by day, by night ten thousand shine, 
And light us deep into the Deity: 
How boundless in magnificence and might ! 
O what a confluence of ethereal fires, 
From urns unnumbered, down the steep of heav'n, 
Streams to a point, and centers in my sight! 
Nor tarries there; I feel it at my heart, 
My heart, at once, it humbles and exalts; 
Lays it in the dust, and calls it to the skies." 



35 



THE MINISTRY OF MUSIC 



THE MINISTRY OF MUSIC 

Music has had an important place in the ad- 
vancement of civilization. If 

"The meanest flower that blows can give 
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears," 

what shall we say of the inspirational power of 
music's melody? 

Music stirs the heart of man. It arouses 
the patriot to heroic action, quickens the pulse 
of the lover, thrills the soul of the freeman as 
he strikes for liberty, and expands the heart 
of the worshiper. 

Music is declared to be the most perfect 
medium for the expression of emotion. One 
of the oldest books of the world tells us that at 
creation "the morning stars sang together." 
This corresponds with Plato's theory of "the 
music of the spheres." Dryden has suggested 
that music will untune the sky: 

"As from the power of sacred lays 
The spheres began to move, 
And sung the great Creator's praise 
To all the blest above: 

39 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

So, when the last and dreadful hour 
This crumbling pageant shall devour, 
The trumpet shall be heard on high, 
The dead shall live, the living die, 
And music shall untune the sky." 

The origin of music is beyond the dawn of 
history. No one knows just when it began. All 
peoples have at least the rudiments of music. 
Primitive tribes may be shut off from the rest 
of the world, yet music is among them. 

All grades and classes of people enjoy music. 
It has been said that when God saw how many 
of His earthly children dwelt in houses to 
which had not yet come gold, or painting, or 
sculpture, or poetry, that the Creator, having 
given to the mind the genius that could paint 
and carve and build, at last said, "I shall now 
create an art for the whole people — an art 
for city and country, for palace or hut, for the 
vast assembly or the single, lonely heart — I 
shall give the mind music." 

Music is used on all occasions. It has a 
place in the private circle, in the public gather- 
ing, at the theater, at the church, in sorrow 
and in joy, at birth, at marriage, and at funeral. 

40 



The Ministry of Music 

The housewife sings at her daily toil, the shep- 
herd sings to his flock. Mythology says that 
Bacchus was never happy unless within the 
sound of Pan's sweet flute. King Saul was 
recovered from his melancholy by the melody 
that dripped from David's harp. Philip V of 
Spain was rescued from mental disaster by the 
famous musician, Farinelli, who was brought 
from Naples to charm away the despondency 
of the king. When Luther was discouraged he 
would say, "Come, and let us sing a Psalm of 
praise and drive away the devil.' ' 

There is marshaling power in music. Some 
one has said that Moses would have reached 
Canaan if Miriam had kept Israel singing. It 
is related that in the Middle Ages Prince Con- 
rad led out his forces against Charles I of 
Sicily, with a female choir, singing, accompanied 
by cymbals, drums, flutes, and violins. The 
singing of the Garibaldi hymn helped to set 
modern Italy free. Music hastened the dawn 
of Italian liberty. The youth marched to the 
deliverance of their native land under the 
awakening touch of martial melody. The 
musicians were forbidden to play a certain 

41 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

Swiss air in the French army, for fear that the 
Swiss soldiers would desert the army and go 
home. In our Civil War there was a regiment 
of Christians, who, every time they went into 
battle, sang, " We 're going home to die no more/' 
They were nicknamed "The Die-No-Mores." 
The tide of battle has been turned in many a 
conflict by the singing of a hymn or the beating 
of a drum. 

We come now to sacred music. The function 
of sacred music is "to stimulate and express 
devotion. " Music is called "the love language 
of the soul. ,, Bach said, "One of the noblest 
objects of music is the spread of religion and 
the elevation of the human soul." Another 
says, "Religion as an organized thing and as 
worship could not exist without it (music). 
When song dies out where men assemble for 
worship, the doors are soon closed.' ' Music 
and devotion go together. The poet knew this 
who said: 

"Devotion borrows music's tone, 
And music takes devotion's wing; 
And, like the bird that hails the sun, 
They soar to heaven, and soaring, sing." 

42 



The Ministry of Music 

Homer sang to the gods. Indians have a 
rough chant when they perform their sacred 
rites. The Indian yells and beats his tom-tom. 
The combination is such as to drive the cul- 
tured musician mad, but it pleases, if it does 
not always soothe, the savage breast. The 
ancient Muses were mostly employed in the 
service of the gods. 

Music had an important place in worship 
among the Hebrews. When Solomon had the 
Ark of the Covenant brought to the temple 
prepared for it, and the Levites had put the 
Ark in its place, it was while the company of 
musicians, arrayed in white linen, sounded the 
trumpets, beat the cymbals, and sang, that the 
glory of the Lord filled the temple. When the 
king of Israel, and Jehoshaphat, and the king 
of Edom went to consult Elisha, the prophet, 
for God's message, Elisha called for a minstrel, 
and while the minstrel played the hand of the 
Lord was upon the prophet and he delivered 
his message. When the Ten Commandments 
were given at Sinai the Israelites not only saw 
the smoke and the lightning, but they heard 
the noise of the trumpet. When David insti- 

43 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

tuted the imposing, stately services on Mount 
Zion he selected four thousand singers who 
composed the tabernacle choirs. When he 
brought the Ark from Kirjath-jearim to the 
holy city, companies of singers marched and 
sang, and David marched and played on his 
harp. Timbrels, trumpets, and cymbals 
sounded. 

Music has held a prominent place in the 
Christian age. At the birth of Jesus angelic 
choirs broke the silence of the skies with a 
sweet celestial chime. The last night that 
Jesus was with His disciples before His suffering 
on the cross they sang a hymn together. Pagan 
historians refer to the singing of the early Chris- 
tians. Augustine speaks of the singing of the 
Christians at the Milan Church in these noble 
words: "How I wept, O Lord, deeply touched 
by the hymns and songs of praise as uttered 
by the voices of Thy sweetly singing congrega- 
tions! The voices flowed in at my ears, truth 
was distilled in my heart, and the affection of 
piety overflowed in sweet tears of joy." 

The word "Lollard" is said to be derived 
from "lullen," to sing. The Lollards found in 

44 



The Ministry of Music 

hymn tunes and chants a medium for the ex- 
pression of their religious devotion. In Luther's 
day the Protestants sang their doctrines into 
the hearts of the people. Luther called music 
"the transfigured daughter of heaven. " The 
Puritans were greatly influenced by the singing 
of the Psalms. The great awakening under the 
Wesleys had the poet-preacher, Charles Wesley, 
whose hymns greatly accelerated the mighty 
revival of the eighteenth century. The Salva- 
tion Army wins much by its hearty, enthusias- 
tic singing. All great religious movements have 
been intensified by music. 

There is mysterious power in music's melody. 
Carlyle calls it "a kind of articulate, unfathom- 
able speech that leads us to the edge of the 
infinite and lets us gaze into that." Tennyson 
says, "It often seems to me that music must 
take up expression at the point where poetry 
leaves off and expresses what can not be ex- 
pressed in words." Richter exclaimed, "O 
music, thou who bringest the receding waves 
of eternity nearer to the weary heart of man as 
he stands upon the shores and longs to cross 
over; art thou the evening breeze of this life 

45 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

or the morning air of the future one?" A 
yearning soul asks of music, "Art thou a recol- 
lection of Paradise or a foretaste of Heaven?" 
We may now ask concerning the function of 
music in the church service. We will be helped 
in our estimate if we remember the true aim of 
sacred music, which is said to be "to stimulate 
and express devotion." Music seems to furnish 
a language for the soul. How it sobs and re- 
joices, pleads for mercy and rises on exultant 
wing! 

Some folks have the unworthy conception 
that church music is to break the monotony 
of the service or to entertain or to attract an 
audience, or is a sort of concession by the pas- 
tor so that the rest of the people may have 
something to do. But instead of all this we 
should recognize that music is an integral part 
of worship. It arouses religious sentiment, it 
calls the heart to praise, it excites reflection, it 
weds thought to harmony and carries the soul 
God ward. 

Many of our tunes and much of our best 
music were composed amid great spiritual 
fervency, and we should sing them with a spir- 

4 6 



The Ministry of Music 

itual understanding. They have a message for 
the heart. Jenny Lind could ravish the hearts 
of her listeners because a divine melody was 
whispering to her soul. When Ole Bull was 
asked by his king where he got such sweet notes 
as swept from his violin, he replied, "I caught 
them, Your Majesty, in the mountains of Nor- 
way/ ' God had spoken to his heart through 
creation. God having spoken to him he could 
make his violin speak to others. Beethoven 
heard silent music in the fields and valleys, and 
that divine inner music gave pathos and power 
to his executions. Handel was told by his sov- 
ereign that the " Messiah" oratorio afforded 
him great pleasure. Handel's reply hints at 
the correct estimate of all sacred music. He 
said to the emperor, "Your Majesty, I did not 
intend to arouse or to afford pleasure; I meant 
to make the world better/ ' When Handel 
wrote the passage in the " Messiah, " "He was 
despised and rejected," he wept. When he 
composed the "Hallelujah Chorus," he says 
that he thought he saw the heavens open with 
the angels standing about the Throne. 

The church choir has a sacred task. Israel's 

47 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

king of old " appointed singers unto the Lord, 
who should praise the beauty of holiness." 
The tabernacle choirs of David's day were to 
sing to the glory of God. Paul gives us the 
mission of sacred song. He tells us what and 
how to sing: "Let the word of Christ dwell 
in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and ad- 
monishing one another with psalms and hymns 
and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your 
hearts unto God." According to the apostle 
the aim of sacred music is not pleasure and 
entertainment, but instruction and edification. 
This does not belittle or cheapen the work of 
the choir. It exalts and glorifies it. The 
service the choir renders is holy and should be 
greatly appreciated. 

It requires time and grace to sing in a 
church choir. Sacrifices have to be made to 
attend choir rehearsal. But the path of choirs 
has not always been smooth. It is related that 
in 1779 at Worcester a public meeting decided 
that the singers must sit in the rear seats on 
the men's side, and the mode of singing should 
be without reading line by line. The following 
Sunday Deacon Chamberlain arose to fulfill his 

4 8 



The Ministry of Music 

time-honored duty of lining the Psalms, but 
the singers made no pause. Still Deacon Cham- 
berlain read on, till overpowered, he took his 
hat, and with tears in his eyes retired. In his 
book "Culture and Music, " Carl Merz says 
this was the first organization of a choir in this 
country, and it started in a fight. The choir 
is sometimes called "the war department of 
the Church/ ' All these things may serve as 
an occasion of merriment, but when we speak 
sanely and seriously there should be only praise 
and most hearty appreciation for those who use 
their God-given talent and their trained ability 
to advance the interests of the music of the 
sanctuary. 

Church music is not complete without the 
organ. Not long ago the pipe organ was called 
the instrument of the devil and the Pope. A 
pipe organ was bought by a Church in one of 
our Eastern States and was not unpacked for 
nine months because of the opposition to its 
installment in the church. Yet the organ, 
above all others, is the instrument of sacred 
music. Bushnell said, "The organ is the instru- 
ment of God; grandest of all instruments, it is, 
4 49 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

as it should be, the instrument of religion. 
Profane uses can not handle it. It will not go 
to battle nor the dance nor the serenade, for 
it is the holy Nazarite and can not leave the 
courts of the Lord." 

The organist is not to be forgotten. The 
organ, under the deft and trained touch of the 
consecrated player, is to sound out the praises 
of God, and tune our hearts for worship and 
praise. We were glad to note a few months ago 
a published announcement from the American 
Guild of Organists. It reads as follows: 

"For the greater glory of God, and for the good of His 
Holy Church in this land, we, being severally members 
of the American Guild of Organists, do declare our 
mind and intention in the things following: 

"We believe that the office of music in Christian 
worship is a sacred oblation before the Most High. 

"We believe that they who are set as choirmasters and 
as organists in the house of God ought themselves to be 
persons of devout conduct, teaching the ways of earnest- 
ness in the choirs committed to their charge. 

"We believe that the unity of purpose and fellow- 
ship of life between ministers and choirs should be every- 
where established and maintained. We believe that at 
all times and in all places it is meet, right, and our bounden 
duty to work and to pray for the advancement of Chris- 

50 



The Ministry of Music 

tian worship in the holy gifts of strength and nobleness; 
to the end that the Church may be purged of her blem- 
ishes, that the minds of men may be instructed, that the 
honor of God's house may be guarded in our time and 
in the time to come. 

" Wherefore, we do give ourselves with reverence and 
humility to these endeavors, offering up our works and 
our persons in the name of Him without whom nothing 
is strong, nothing is holy." 

Music is often an effective way of bringing 
the gospel message to the human heart. A 
few years ago I heard a professor of a theological 
seminary in Chicago relate the following inci- 
dent: A Norwegian boy went to South Dakota 
to the town of Pierre. He was far from home 
and very lonely. One Sunday morning he was 
walking by a church. The door was open. He 
went in. He could not speak our language. 
He knew no one. By and by the congregation 
began to sing. He knew the tune and what it 
said in the Norwegian language. It was, "What 
a Friend we have in Jesus !" It touched his 
heart. That afternoon he walked out under 
the cottonwood trees by the Missouri River and 
there gave his heart to God. He soon entered 
the Dakota University. Later he went to 

51 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

Beloit College. Still later he entered the 
Chicago Theological Seminary, and at gradua- 
tion stood at the head of his class. That hymn 
led that man to Christ. There is a ministry in 
music. 

Sacred melody has a sacred ministry; there- 
fore sing the gospel. Sing it to the wicked man 
and let it mellow his nature; sing it to the man 
of seared conscience and let it melt his heart of 
stone; sing it to the despairing man and let it 
flash a gleam of hope into the midnight of his 
soul; sing it to the unhappy man and let it 
make the sun of joy burst from the riven cloud; 
sing it to the storm- tossed man, tempest-driven, 
and let it bring a calm and holy hush to his 
heart; sing it to the prodigal and let it remind 
him of "the tender grace of a day that is dead;" 
sing it to the lost man and let the music of the 
gospel melody sweep the delicate harp of the 
soul and bring the man to God; sing it until 
you shall join the celestial choirs of the im- 
mortals, for music has a place in heaven. 



52 



THE MINISTRY OF STRUGGLE 
AND TEARS 



THE MINISTRY OF STRUGGLE AND 
TEARS 

The path that leads to coronation is not al- 
ways strewn with flowers. The way to king- 
ship is not up a shining slope of ease. The road 
to a scepter and a crown has thorns and blood. 
The philosophy of life that takes no account of 
trouble and adversity is false to facts. 

We look out upon the fair face of nature and 
we see bursting flowers, murmuring brooks, 
bending trees, verdant meadow-lands, lofty hills, 
majestic mountains, glinting rivers, shimmering 
seas, and overarching sky; but all this glory has 
come up through uncounted aeons of strife, and 
struggle, and shock. 

In the dim and distant ages the earth was a 
molten ball. Later we have the cooling mass 
with heart of fire. In the roll of ages seas form 
and rocks harden, and after untold millenniums 
the earth is ready for flower and herb, and 
finally for man. 

Standing in volcanic regions you see how 

55 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

the rocks are twisted and distorted, indicat- 
ing that giants have been at work. They look 
as though they had writhed in agony as they 
came through their red-hot baths. Fire, flood, 
and frost have all played their part. 

The law of struggle is seen in the life of a 
tree. Here is a forest monarch whose fiber is 
packed with strength. It is worthy to become 
a part of Solomon's Temple, helping grace 
Mount Zion, and adorning the capital city of 
God's chosen people. You look at this sinewy 
giant. Where did its roots find anchorage? 
Where did it lift its head to catch the dews of 
heaven? Was it in some quiet vale? Was it 
in some hidden and sequestered glen where no 
storms ever beat, where no blasts could twist 
and wrench it, where no combat ever comes? 
No! It grew out yonder on the mountains of 
Lebanon, where it must wrestle with the winds 
of God as the Syrian storms swept over it in 
their majesty and fury. It was made strong 
through struggle. 

One spring day I picked up a young robin in 
the yard. It trembled and quivered as I held 
it. I let it go and down to the earth it quickly 

56 



The Ministry of Struggle and Tears 

fell. It hopped along the ground and after a 
few seconds stood panting. How hard it was 
to learn to fly! The parent birds came coaxing 
the little one to further effort, until it ventured 
again and again. From some small perch it 
would try its wings and go fluttering to the 
ground. But it gained in the power of flight 
from day to day, and soon was free to go at 
will among the branches. It was victory through 
struggle. 

The story is told of a lad who one day 
found a chrysalis of a beautiful butterfly. He 
took it home and watched its development. 
Seeing that a struggle was going on in the 
chrysalis he determined to lend his aid, and 
with his help the creature did in five minutes 
what alone it could have done in an hour. But 
when the butterfly took wing, instead of gliding 
gladly away, it went a little distance, fell 
fluttering to the ground, and died. The hour- 
long struggle which the boy saved the creature 
was necessary for its life. 

The same law is operative in man. Here is 
one who has great muscular power. He can 
break coins with his fingers, he can snap leather 

57 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

straps by the swelling of his muscles and by 
the expansion of his chest. Where did he grow? 
Was it in some home of luxury? Was it without 
exercise? No! There had been struggle and 
discipline in his life. 

Consider man's intellectual power. Here is 
a person of mental grasp and vigor. He can 
wrestle with perplexing problems and trace the 
subtleties of thought. His mind is under perfect 
command. He can marshal his powers and 
force them to a focus. He can center them 
upon a point of application. He has a mental 
grasp and an intellectual sweep that make him 
a giant. How came he to have such power, 
such control, such mastery? Was it by ease? 
by idleness? No! It was by toil, by applica- 
tion, by discipline, by struggle. 

See how struggle crowned Demosthenes. 
He was a timid stammerer at first. By the 
shore of the roaring sea he put pebbles in his 
mouth and spoke his stammering words to the 
ocean waves. He struggled on. One day a 
surging throng gathers at Athens. The masses 
of Athenian democracy were there. The man 
who had sounded forth his words while the 

58 



The Ministry of Struggle and Tears 

ocean sang its anthem in his ears mounts the 
rostrum. With vivid speech, with orator's art, 
with lofty imagination, and with heart of fire 
he plays upon the emotions of that mighty 
throng. Never did their native country seem 
so dear, never did the mountains of Attica 
seem so lofty and summitless; never did the 
waves break with such music on their classic 
shores; never did the pages of their history 
glow with such deeds of valor; never did the 
past seem so bright, or the future of a faithful 
democracy so flattering; never did liberty seem 
so fair, so immortal; nor tyranny so fiendish, 
so Satanic. He pours out the flood-tide of his 
patriotic devotion. The multitude sways before 
his impelling power like a forest in the grip of a 
tempest. They are moved, aroused, thrilled, 
until, amid the orator's rapturous flights they 
cry, "Lead us against Philip. " Struggle made 
Demosthenes thus strong for triumph. 

The giants of earth are not children of for- 
tune; they are the children of struggle, and 
through struggle they become children of vic- 
tory. If we had our way we would have the 
spiritual life grow as a flower in some quiet 

59 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

vale and sheltered bower. We would have 
our craft sail forever upon a quiet and stormless 
sea, where waves never surge, where lightnings 
never smite, where thunders never crash. We 
would "go to the skies on flowery beds of ease." 
We would "sing ourselves away to everlasting 
bliss.' ' We would have no floods to face, no 
foes to fight. But infinite wisdom has planned 
otherwise. 

The old proverb is true: "A calm sea never 
made a skillful mariner/ ' A sheltered life never 
became morally mighty. The ore must pass 
through the furnace to come out steel. Statues 
of grace and beauty do not leap from the block 
of marble by soothing touches. Clay must enter 
the fire before it turns out the priceless por- 
celain. Ghiberti spent twenty years in beating 
into beauty the scenes upon the bronze doors 
of the Baptistry of the Duomo in Florence. 
God spends fifty years in fashioning a human 
life into grace and beauty upon the anvil of 
trial and adversity. The man who meets the 
discipline of trial grows strong and kingly. 
The trumpets of God forever herald the truth 
that man must battle for his crown. Canaan 

60 



The Ministry of Struggle and Tears 

became an actual possession of Israel after hard 
fighting and heroic effort. The promised land 
of the Christian is won by conquest only. 
Froude says, "You can not dream yourself 
into character; you must hammer and forge 
yourself into one." 

The purest, serenest, and most radiant souls 
have gone the way of sorrow, of trial, and of 
suffering. Through a divine alchemy, which 
we do not always understand, man's life is 
refined, and the disciple, like his Lord, is "made 
perfect through suffering." "In the world ye 
shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; 
I have overcome the world." "To him that 
overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My 
throne." 

"If we suffer we shall also reign." The one 
who has spent all his energy and power in the 
overthrow of a giant wrong rejoices more in the 
victory that comes than he who never sacrifices. 
He who grasped the sword, and seized the gun 
and rushed to the assault on the field of blood 
that slavery might die and then came "stagger- 
ing from the fight" can enjoy the music of falling 
chains vastly more than he who stayed at home 

61 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

when his country called for men. The soldier 
who stood with Washington amid the sufferings 
of Valley Forge could feel the thrill of rap- 
turous delight sweep through his soul at the 
surrender of Cornwallis, while he who failed to 
fight for freedom was bereft of joy. So the 
Christian who suffers with Christ, who goes 
with Him in sorrow, with Him in poverty, with 
Him where thorns are thick and roses rare, with 
Him to a garden of agony, with Him to sacrifice, 
can catch strains of heavenly music, and have 
in his heart melodies of the divine, while the 
man who knows not the " fellowship of Christ's 
sufferings' f is joyless and crownless. The man 
who suffers with Christ is on his way to that 
Land of Beulah which Bunyan's Pilgrim saw, 
" Where the sun shines night and day, the land 
lying beyond the Valley of the Shadow of Death, 
and out of the reach of Giant Despair, and 
from which one can not so much as see Doubting 
Castle, where they renew their marriage con- 
tract with their God and have no want of corn 
and wine." And in that 

"Land of pure delight, 
Where saints immortal reign," 

62 



The Ministry of Struggle and Tears 

it shall be said of those who suffer with Christ: 
"These are they who came out of great tribula- 
tion, and have washed their robes, and made 
them white in the blood of the Lamb. There- 
fore are they before the Throne. " "If we suffer 
we shall also reign." 

There is a philosophy of human affliction 
that has comfort and cheer. Through our 
tears we may see God's rainbow. Matheson 
says, "My tears have made my rainbow." 
Afflictions are not to be sought. They are not 
to be self-inflicted, but they may become the 
occasion of refinement and of the sweetening 
of character. They may be "a savor of life unto 
life," or of "death unto death." There is a 
harvest to affliction's sowing. The thorny 
branches of affliction bear roses. Crucifixions 
bring coronations. "Our light affliction, which 
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more 
exceeding and eternal weight of glory." 

When the bloom of health is on the cheek, 
when prosperity hangs like luscious fruit on 
the bows of life's tree, when fortune smiles and 
beckons to the heights of fame and power, men 
are prone to forget God. How selfish, how 

63 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

hard, how cold, how callous and indifferent men 

would become were pain and death removed! 

We may well sing: 

"Blest be the tempest, kind the storm 
Which drives us nearer home." 

Michelet* tells us that in the hot countries 
the furious insects which attack the wild cattle 
in reality save their lives by driving them to 
the highlands. The flocks and herds become 
sickly in the swampy, feverish lowlands, when, 
trembling and bleeding, they fly from their 
stinging persecutors to the fresh air and living 
waters of the hills, where their tormentors leave 
them. Thus our troubles and afflictions drive 
us from the atmosphere that chokes, and 
smothers, and murders the finer impulses of 
the soul and we seek help and refuge in the 
secret place of the Most High. 

There is a refining process at work in afflic- 
tion. It is David the persecuted and hunted who 
can sing his immortal Shepherd Psalm. Like 
other poets he " Learned in suffering what he 
taught in song. M Goethe declared that he 
never had a great sorrow out of which he did 

* Used by W. L. Watkinson, " Education of the Heart," p. 233. 

64 



The Ministry of Struggle and Tears 

not get a poem. It was from the shadows of a 
Bedford jail that came Bunyan's immortal 
Allegory. Dante, who is called the voice of 
ten silent centuries, wandered a broken-hearted 
exile through many years. Sad and lonely he 
walked the streets among strangers. The chil- 
dren would point their fingers at him and say, 
11 There goes the man who has been in hell." 
Out of his own fiery pains and burning agonies 
he wrote his immortal stories. Out from the 
riven heart of Tennyson flowed that pure stream, 
that matchless threnody, "In Memoriam." 
Here the sobs of a broken heart are set to music 
Tennyson's poetry, as well as his life, was 
transfigured by a great sorrow. 

Goldschmidt went to hear Jenny Lind sing. 
He was asked how he liked her singing. He 
replied, "Fair. But if I could marry her and 
break her heart she would sing better.' ' It 
transpired that he did marry her, and he did 
break her heart, and she did sing better. There 
was a new touch of pathos and power in her 
singing after her sorrow that brought the world 
to her feet. 

One day a great sorrow came into the ex- 
5 6 5 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

perience of George Matheson, the illustrious 
blind preacher of Scotland. A bitter disap- 
pointment swept his soul and tested the fiber 
of his life. But how often it is that amid 
pain and suffering man gets his loftiest visions! 
So in his anguish and misfortune, George Mathe- 
son saw a Pity that never fails, and a Love that 
never dies, and his heartache became the mother 
of a wondrous song. In the burning agony 
of that crucial hour when the bitter cup was 
pressed to his lips, he wrote that immortal hymn : 

"O Love that wilt not let me go, 
I rest my weary soul in Thee; 
I give Thee back the life I owe, 
That in Thine ocean depths its flow 
May richer, fuller be. 

"O Light that followest all my way, 
I yield my flickering torch to Thee, 
My heart restores its borrowed ray, 
That in Thy sunshine's blaze its day 
May brighter, fairer be. 

"O Joy that seekest me through pain, 
I can not close my heart to Thee; 

I trace the rainbow through the rain, 

And feel the promise is not vain 
That morn shall tearless be. 

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The Ministry of Struggle and Tears 

"O Cross that liftest up my head, 
I dare not ask to fly from Thee; 
I lay in dust, life's glory dead, 
And from the ground there blossoms red 
Life that shall endless be." 

Jesus can live with us in the storm and can 
lift us to catch visions above the storm. I 
remember traveling in Italy one day when our 
train began the ascent of one of the lower 
ranges of the Italian Alps. As the train climbed 
up the mountain it plunged into a thunderstorm. 
The clouds were all about us. The thunder 
crashed as if beneath us at times. On sped 
the train up the slope, when suddenly it dashed 
out of the storm and cloud, and plunged us into 
the glory of the clear sunlight. We had gotten 
above the clouds. Yonder on the plain the 
storm was sweeping onward, but we were 
bathed in the splendors of the full-orbed day. 
The glorious sunshine was about us. The man 
who has no Christian faith lives in the storm 
with no vision of the sun, while the Christian 
often rises above the storm, and stands on the 
Mount of God " where the golden sunlight 
gleams.' ' 

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Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

It is recorded that when the Roman Em- 
peror threatened Chrysostom with banishment 
the prophet of righteousness replied, "Thou 
canst not, for the world is my Father's house; 
thou canst not banish me." Then said the 
Emperor, "But I will slay thee." Thereupon 
Chrysostom answered, "Nay, but thou canst 
not, for my life is hid with Christ in God." 
Then said the ruler, "I will take thy treasures." 
But the faithful soul replied, "Nay, but thou 
canst not; for in the first place I have none 
that thou knowest of. My treasure is in 
heaven and my heart is there." Then the en- 
raged Roman continued, "But I will drive thee 
away from man, and thou shalt have no friend 
left." At once the grand old hero said, "Nay, 
and that thou canst not; for I have a Friend in 
heaven from whom thou canst not separate me. 
I defy thee. There is nothing thou canst do 
to hurt me." Thus Jesus can enable us to stand 
when the jeers and taunts of an ungodly world 
ring in our ears, when people sneer and the lip 
curls in scorn, when the multitude hates and 
hisses, when accused of crimes we never did, 
when maligned by an infernal foe, when the 

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The Ministry of Struggle and Tears 

swelling flood of temptation rises and rolls 
against us, when the hot breath of passion 
sweeps the soul, when the tide of sorrow beats 
pitilessly on the shores of being, when the sword 
of anger gleams and the shout of the foe rings 
in our ears, when the whirlwind and tempest 
rage, even then Jesus can enable us to stand 
like the tree deep-rooted in the soil, like the 
granite that is anchored in the hills, like the rock 
against which the ocean breakers beat in vain. 

The forest monarch was made strong and 
sinewy through overcoming the wrestling ele- 
ments, not by yielding to them. The tree that 
bends to the wind without resisting, rebounding 
power must forever bow its head in weakness. 
When the storms of life smite the soul, if man is 
firmly rooted in the promises of God, he can 
remain tranquil in the tempest knowing that 
his interests are safe. As the first blast of 
grief sweeps his soul he quickly rebounds in 
the strength and confidence of a faith which 
remembers the word of assurance: "The ever- 
lasting God is thy refuge. " "Fear thou not, 
for I am with thee." Our Lord is more than a 
match for your trouble. He says to you as 

6 9 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

He said to the frightened disciples on the sea 
of Galilee, "Why are ye fearful, ye of little 
faith!" "Then He arose and rebuked the winds 
and the sea; and there was a great calm." When 
our lives are "hid with Christ in God" He can 
rebuke the storms, saying, "Peace, be still," 
and there will be tranquillity and rest. 

The believing soul is at peace because it 
rests upon the promises of the God of infinite 
wisdom and of infinite goodness, who says, 
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My 
word shall not pass away." By faith we may 
grasp what we ask and enjoy it even now, for 
"Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, a 
conviction of things not seen." 

Man must not bend in misery and sorrow, 
but by faith overcome his mourning. The 
Master said, "In the world ye shall have tribula- 
tion, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the 
world." Also, "He that overcometh shall in- 
herit all things." "Only believe." Over and 
over again our Lord exhorted people to believe. 
Whether the trouble be sin, or sickness, or 
death, His remedy is, "Only believe." No 
matter what your trouble is, Christ can satisfy 

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The Ministry of Struggle and Tears 

your desire. " Trust also in Him and He shall 
bring it to pass." " Delight thyself also in the 
Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of 
thine heart/ ' " Whatsoever things ye desire 
when ye pray believe that ye receive them 
and ye shall have them." But the faith must 
not break in the storm. It must stand firmly an- 
chored in the promises, no matter how long the 
fury of the blast remains unspent, for the God 
of infinite love and power will not fail you even 
when promise and experience seem to conflict. 
A crown is quite the opposite of a cross. 
Yet a crown is always the result of a cross over- 
come. When a cross weighs upon you, "only 
believe' ' and Christ will transform it into a 
crown. He can make any trouble the opposite 
of what it appears to be. "If a son ask bread, 
will He give him a stone ?" 

"Take courage to intrust your love 
To Him so named, who guards above 

Its ends, and shall fulfill! 
Breaking the narrow prayers that may 
Befit your narrow hearts away 

In His broad, loving will."* 



*Mrs. Browning in " Isobel's Child," 

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Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

Despondency fastens its iron hooks in man's 
heart and would drag him down to the doors 
of despair, but God gives man the angel of 
hope to coax him back to the heights of light and 
cheer. Sorrow surges in man's heart like a 
troubled sea, but God gives " beauty for ashes, 
the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment 
of praise for the spirit of heaviness." The 
pulse of man's ambition beats low, but God 
gives new visions and points out new golden 
summits, and baptizes our hearts with new 
inspiration. Defeat tries to wrap its iron chains 
about man and bind him in a remorseless 
captivity, but God causes the harbinger of 
victory to sing in his soul. Man stands by a 
sick bedside and sees the light fade out of the 
eyes, and feels the pulse of a loved one grow 
still. He looks into an empty cradle and upon 
a newly-made grave, but God pours the balsam 
of an immortal gospel upon the bleeding heart. 
Man must go down into the valley of shadow 
until he can hear the flutter of the death-angel's 
wing, but the Father gives him the staff of His 
comfort and the rod of His power while he waits 
for the chariot of God. Man sees that this 

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The Ministry of Struggle and Tears 

life is but a "vapor," "a breath," "a hand- 
breadth," "a shadow," "a flower," "a sleep," 
"a dream," but God gives him an eternal career 
up the heights, an unending progress toward a 
summitless destiny that finds its sanctuary and 
home in the bosom of the Eternal. Man lives 
amid storms, and sorrows, and tears, but God 
gives Heaven, the stormless, sorrowless, tear- 
less, deathless, nightless world with its holy 
fellowships, where dwell the general assembly 
and Church of the first-born, and the spirits 
of just men made perfect,* who are without 
fault before the throne of God.f Resting in 
this faith man may say at the close of each day : 

"The day is ended; ere I sink to sleep 

My weary spirit seeks repose in Thine; 
Father, forgive my trespasses and keep 
This little life of mine. 

"With loving kindness curtain Thou my bed, 
And cool in rest my burning pilgrim feet; 
Thy pardon be the pillow for my head, 
So shall my sleep be sweet. 

"At peace with all the world, dear Lord, and Thee, 
No foes my soul's unwavering faith can shake. 
All 's well whichever side the grave for me 
The morning light may break." 



* Hebrews 12:23. f Revelation 14:5. 

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Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

When mountain climbing I have often picked 
flowers that bloomed in beauty and sweetness 
not far from the home of snow and frost. What 
delicacy of tint and shade, what sweet and 
subtle perfume, what elegance of grace and 
form, what tender charm they possessed! 
Their delicate whiteness resembled the snow 
near which they bloomed; their tints of violet 
were like the blue from out the sky. So nigh 
to snow, and ice, and blizzard, so near to the 
home of eternal frost, so close to the domain 
of the Winter King do these plants of nature 
bloom! And how often do human plants, 
growing amid the rigor of moral strife and 
storm, where the blasts of winter smite, and 
where moral blizzards blow, bloom in beauty, 
blossom to perfection, and become meet to 
adorn the palace of the King. 

. Life has been called "part a song and part 
a sob; half jubilante and half miserere" It is 
said that it is never far from a smile to a tear. 
Because the ancient ceremonial worship con- 
sisted of two parts, the offering of sacrifices 
and the service of song, Dr. Vance calls it 
"the gospel of the altar and the choir/ ' He 

74 



The Ministry of Struggle and Tears 

calls attention as to how Jesus bound together 
these ideas of sacrifice and song in the Beat- 
itudes. " Blessed are they that mourn ;" that 
is the altar — "for they shall be comforted" — 
that is the choir. "Blessed are the meek" — 
that is the sacrifice — "for they shall inherit the 
earth" — that is the song. "Blessed are ye 
when men shall revile you, and persecute you, 
and shall say all manner of evil against you 
falsely for My sake"— that is the altar. "Re- 
joice and be exceeding glad; for great is your 
reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the 
prophets which were before you" — that is the 
celestial choir. Thus "The symbol of the 
gospel is a cross; but not a cross by itself; not a 
lone, bare, gaunt, naked cross. The symbol 
of the gospel is a crown; but not a crown by 
itself; not a proud, cold, despotic, selfish, piti- 
less crown. The symbol of the gospel is a 
cross and a crown; a cross lying in a crown; a 
crown growing around a cross; a cross haloed 
by a crown; a crown won by a cross."* 

We are not orphans, we are not waifs, we 
are not pieces of driftwood floating aimlessly 

* "Tendency," Vance, p. 207. 

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Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

upon the high seas of life. The cry of wrestling 
Jacob, "Tell me Thy name," was answered by 
Jesus when He taught us to say, "Our Father." 
The yearning of the Hebrew heart, "0 that I 
knew where I might find Him! My heart and 
my flesh crieth out for the living God," finds 
sacred answer in the Incarnation. Browning 
saw this and wrote: 

" 'T is the weakness in strength that I cry for! My flesh 

that I seek 
In the Godhead! I seek and I find it. Saul, it shall 

be 
A Face like to my face that receives thee; a Man like 

to me, 
Thou shalt love and be loved by, forever! a Hand like 

this hand 
Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee. See 

the Christ stand !" 

Augustine speaks for the race when he says, 
"Man can not rest until he rests in God." Man 
wants to creep into the Divine Heart. He wants 
to know not only the power of God, but also 
to feel the nearness of God. Only the convic- 
tion that he is the object of God's thought and 
care can give rest and peace. This conviction 

7 6 



The Ministry of Struggle and Tears 

Christ has wrought in the heart of the race, 
and the Christian poet sings: 

"Yet in the maddening maze of things, 
And tossed by storm and flood, 
To one fixed trust my spirit clings; 
I know that God is good ! 

"And so beside the Silent Sea 
I wait the muffled oar; 
No harm from Him can come to me 
On ocean or on shore. 

"I know not where His islands lift 
Their fronded palms in air; 
I only know I can not drift 
Beyond His love and care. 

"And Thou, O Lord! by whom are seen 
Thy creatures as they be, 
Forgive me if too close I lean 
My human heart on Thee!"* 

A man went into a store in New York City 
and asked the proprietor for some tumblers 
tuned to the key of C. The proprietor re- 
sponded, "I am no musician. There are 
thousands of tumblers here, but I do not know 
whether any of them are tuned to the key of C 

* " Eternal Goodness, " Whittier. 

-77 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

or not." "I will attend to that," replied the 
other, and he took a tuning fork out of his pocket 
and struck it, and every tumbler among the 
thousands that was tuned to the key of C 
leaped into music. Let our hearts be keyed 
into harmony with God, and then, whatever 
the providences of His grace for our lives, they 
will leap into responsive vibration, and life 
will be full of music. 

He who knows all calamities, and all acci- 
dents, and all bereavements dares to say, "All 
things work together for good to those who 
love God." Out from the gateway of eternity 
the Savior speaks, saying: "Let not your heart 
be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in 
Me. In My Father's house are many mansions: 
if it were not so, I would have told you. I go 
to prepare a place for you, and if I go and 
prepare a place for you, I will come again, and 
receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there 
ye may be also." 

Death is called the key that opens the palace 
of eternity. Tennyson, thinking of Hallam, his 
friend, who had been drowned at sea, calls him 
"That friend of mine who lives in God." 

78 



The Ministry of Struggle and Tears 

Drummond suggests that death is not so 
much "sunset" as "sunrise," not so much "de- 
parture" as "arrival." Dying Frances Willard 
exclaimed, "How beautiful it is to be with God ! " 
For the Christian one declares that "to be 
death-called is to be God-called, to be God- 
called is to be Christ-found, and to be Christ- 
found is hope and home and heaven." 

How beautiful it is to so live that the lamp 
of life is trimmed and burning when the Bride- 
groom comes, so that the sail is spread when 
the gales of heaven blow, so that the sheaf is 
ripe when the reapers arrive, so that the fruit 
is mellow when the day of vintage comes, and 
so that one can say with Simeon of old, "Now 
lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, ac- 
cording to Thy word: for mine eyes have seen 
Thy salvation." 

And when the sands of life are almost run; 
when you can almost hear the ripples of the 
waves on the river of death; when you can al- 
most feel the breath of the death-angel on your 
cheek; when life's golden day is ebbing to its 
close; when the twilight of time is melting into 
the twilight of eternity, whose glory shall in- 

79 



Ministry of Nature, Music, and Tears 

crease to an eternal summer noon, then with 
the laureate poet of the Victorian age may you 
be able to sing: 

"Sunset and evening star, 

And one clear call for me! 
And may there be no moaning of the bar 

When I put out to sea. 

"But such a tide as moving seems asleep, 

Too full for sound and foam, 
When that which drew from out the bound- 
less deep 

Turns again home. 

"Twilight and evening bell, 

And after that the dark! 
And may there be no sadness of farewell 

When I embark; 

"For tho' from out our bourne of Time and 
Place 

The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my Pilot face to face 

When I have crost the bar." 



80 



SEP 9 1912 



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